MS has paid millions of dollars to a company that has NOTHING to offer them except FUD against Linux. And now that company is paying people not to use Linux.
There is a post at 5 interesting with a link to how much MS has been backing SCO . ..
I really believe there is too little discussion about issues like this. What you are hitting on is the matter of accountability. It is an extremely important tool for our society. Unfortunately, it usually takes a serious disaster (like the Great Depression) before people realize that accountability is essential to our civilization and something gets implemented. And the situation is even worse with relatively new technology.
People tend to see technology as a separate "thing" that does not require the kind of scrutiny that other issues get. People only get excited when the technology stops working.
For instance, the majority of users have no problem with using a closed source OS like Windows. There are some really important issues about accountability that get neglected but as long as it works, people don't care. The only time people start to care is when insecure code allows their files to be erased and reality bursts their bubble. But what is the complaint? "MS, you need to get it together!" Unfortunately, the majority of people do not associate "accountability" as the main factor behind insecure code. They blame MS for being lazy (which is absurd, for so many reasons).
It seems that accountability is always an after-thought. If the system appears to be working, noone complains. However, without accountability, it is very easy for the system to be completely upside-down, yet appear to be working fine on the surface (most accounting scams appear flawlessly normal on the service, even when BILLIONS of dollars are being stolen or misrepresented).
This is not purely academic, and us/.er's are not immune. Why do we invest so much time into this site without demanding a certain degree of accountability? Is it not possible for our experience with this site to be pretty normal, yet what actually is going on in the background is quite contrary to our very reason for coming here? Without accountability, how will we ever know?
Nothing bizarre about it. Pretty straight forward and simple: the white house site is editting past webpages without posting updated dates. A robot.txt file was created to prevent mass archiving of these documents, so the editting wouldn't be as obvious.
However, I can't imagine an AC, who can't even figure out how to login, to be able to comprehend that . ..
"Yes, he DID say "major combat operations" in his speech. The problem, though, is that on the official websites, the headlines regarding the speech all spoke of "Combat operations" as having ended - NOT "major combat operation." That was how the government was presenting the transcripts of the speech and other articles referring to it - at least up until someone questioned Bush about his having said that "combat operations" had ended, and then, suddenly, someone decided they needed to go back through and add the word "Major" to all of the articles. In at least some cases, the articles were copies of press releases that had been sent out after the speech - and when they were sent out, they went out with the "combat operations" headline. Now, however, they want to make it LOOK like they sent out the press releases with a headline reading "major combat operation," which isn't the case at all."
I guess speeches have to be cautious, but webpages can say exactly what you want to say 'cause later you can easily change things and make everyone THINK that is what was posted that way all along.
Anyway, I conclude that is the REAL reason for the robot.txt file, but/.'ers are too dense to figure that out . . . (or, at least the editors think so).
"Oddly enough he is probably 100 times the programmer you are. Maybe you heard about how he wrote a basic interpreter, argues algorithms with the SQL server team, and has debugged other non-ms applications at trade shows?"
You're point being? Is he a better programmer than, say, Linus Torvalds?
If Gates were giving talks on destroying the competition and off-book financing (stock options), I might listen (if such things fascinated me). But on coding? PLEASE. I don't care what he's coded, it compares nothing to the major OSS hackers.
Besides, in Gates' world, every programmers' name is Microsoft, and it is impossible to find the truly skilled because everything is binary.
Now excuse me, I think have already wasted enough time on an AC.
I submitted a story on how Howard Dean's blog showed that a webpage from May on the white house website had been changed to say "major combat" was over in Iraq, instead of "combat" was over (perhaps to hide Bush's blatant underestimate of the situation at the time). The date was kept the same. This seem significant to the discussion, but instead/. posted the above justification instead.
With the death count now HIGHER than it was during the "combat" period (or, since history has changed, do I have to say "major combat"?), I wonder how the slashdot editors feel about themselves, helping the administration modify history?
They have to bring down a 97% priracy rate and windows is more than 1/4 of the per capita annual income. Obviously, these vendors haven't been loading "legit" copies of windows and the easiest and fastest way to get them to stop is to require them to preinstall Open Source software.
I believe in freedom as much as the next guy, but if it was my responsibility to bring down piracy so that my country could join the WTO, I can't say I wouldn't be as drastic. Choice is great, but without access to the international financial community, development of infrastructure can take a 100 times more time.
Maybe this is necessary if the Vietnamese want to see things change for the better within their lifetimes.
I am sure MS goes around firing people for posting holiday and birthday pictures taken at work, as well (all of which are much less likely to occur at the loading dock and more likely to capture code).
Learn something about business . . . the MS lawyers probably said that this employee was too costly to the company's goodwill and wanted to make an example of them.
No doubt MS reserves the right to fire people for taking pictures on the campus and posting them online, but they excersize this right carefully.
Everyone knows that they are just covering up the fact that they couldn't afford to buy a REAL OS, you know, with the lack of funding the U.S. army gets and all.
Nobody uses Linux for an other reason than its cost, which is actually more than Windows when you take in account its TCO cause windows has all those neat add ons that make life more productive, like clippy.
There were updates for like 9 different kernels, so don't get your panties bunched up, as far as I know, you only NEED 1.
I updated and it was like 40 rpms and took less than 5 minutes to download and install on my cable modem.
As for the cdroms . . . I think it is pretty stupid/scary that hardware is not being built with simple safe guards like, "spin too fast/ get too hot, turn off and cool down." If my freaken toaster can do that (cost me like $10, too), I expect my cdrom to do that too.
I can't wait until there is a virus that goes after poorly designed hardware and makes somebody's house burn down. ..
"sure, we embrace IBM now, but for how long? you do realize that the way we feel about MS is similar to the way our fathers felt about IBM in the 70's."
And if MS ever were to change the way IBM has, we would embrace them, as well. These are corporations, not people. Though slow and clumsy, theoretically only the name stays the same over time.
We are fighting a war of ideals, not companies or people.
Btw, regardless of how many people switch to Linux, the knowledge that you have gained over the years will always give you an advantage and allow you to connect on a different level with other advanced users. The community wont change overall . . . we will just gain more followers;)
"nobody is going to waste time writing Linux drivers for these M$ abandoned tablets"
You would be suprised . . . plus, I don't think Lycoris would mind picking up this business.
I see those being abandoned by MS being the types that will just end up selling them on E-bay. Then guys like you and I will enjoy cheap Linux tablets;)
Why do you think businesses exist? If you walk into a marketing meeting of any business of a relatively large size, what is the key word you hear: Market Share. And what is market share? A partial monopoly which gives the company partial control over the market price of something.
What if there was an industry that prevented anyone from gaining a lot of market share. What would it look like? Such industries DO exist:
Doctore Lawyers Accountants Plumbers etc . ..
There are exceptions to each of these examples (HR Block, Large auditing firms, Large law firms), but the great MAJORITY of these professionals make their living as PRIVATE entities, which means you'll never know how profitable they are.
These professionals can't gain market share because, though it takes time and money, the barriers of market are far, far less than, say, competing with MS on THEIR platform. Hence, when standards are OPEN, competition increases and the needs for financial leverage decrease as a result of smaller barriers to market.
So, your observation of just a view PUBLICLY OWNED (or business large enough for you to note their existence) entities making profits from OSS are correct. However, your inability to observe the earnings of PRIVATELY OWNED entities (or individuals who can live comfortable with just a dozen clients) using and creating OSS is not reason enough to come to the conclusion that OSS is flawed in the area of profitability. Our current system is simply limitted to requiring only public entities to publicly release their earnings and the majority of those benefitting by writing OSS are too small for you to even take notice.
The companies that are REALLY clueless don't even know what SCO is or if they are running Linux. They are completely reactionary and will simply wait until they are sued to worry about SCO.
The companies that are smart will know that SCO is going up again the likes of IBM with completely baseless claims (why do they not show at least ONE infringing part of the code!? That would CERTAINLY help their case and help convince people they are not completely full of . .., at the cost of having only that ONE freaking part taken out by the hackers).
I don't think SCO has much of a niche market, since I pretty much covered everyone (except MS and SUN, which are just mean and whacked, respectively).
First of all, it is for EU agencies. Using this material to back up your decisions might be the difference between a promotion and getting fired if you work for such an organization. This is important for the audience it was written for.
Also, if you are into migrations to OSS, you might find some useful information, regardless of its target audience.
Anyway, the FASB is as bureaucratic as the EU and their publications are much more boring, but as a CPA I hang on every word they publish and so should anyone working in the accounting field, throughout the world. This is not about inspiring people, it is about setting standards, which is not as entertaining as the former but is just as important.
Personally, I think it is great for ANY institution to write on this subject, especially when it has a degree of objectivity on the subject. Many of the "case studies" that this was based on have never been published, so this adds additional observational information on the subject, at the very least.
"The question posed, then, is what do we do with all the people who will soon be unemployed by robots?"
There are PLENTY of places for these people to work, all such positions, of course, are quite heavy in human interaction (which most humans are better at than robots).
Have a class of 20 students with one teacher? Why not give that teacher 5 assistants so that the class can be broken up into groups of 4 students each?
We have plenty of old people, right? Give each senial citizen a care giver to ensure their last years are not lonely and cold.
But, wait!, you ask, how the heck can we afford that!? Well, there are two factors I see supporting this revolution in social services. One, the displaced workers are usually not as well educated, and they are going to be pretty desparate after a couple years competing with Indian PHD's working for 5k/year. So these displaced workers are going to be CHEAP.
Second, who is against corporations making BIG BUCKS when you can get your cut? Though government can be a bit slow and dumb, it won't be long before it realizes that robots pay less income taxes than employees. Therefore, expect the government to implement larger income taxes on corporations, in general.
So, though workers will be displaced by this revolution of industries, a national program that helps these workers make the transition while increasing the reach and caliber of current social services should make this change bearable and maybe, even enjoyable. However, there is always the risk that special interests will buy the policy makers out so that policies will be created that protect the additional profit businesses make from additional taxes. So I implore you to BUY YOUR OWN POLITICIAN:
Guy releases under the GPL - true spirit of the GPL University site mirror website - true spirit of the GPL Volunteer installs software at underpriveledged school - true spirit of the GPL Punk creates bittorrent 2 days after "members only release" 'cause its gpl and couldn't wait any longer - you ain't going to win any noble prizes . . ..
Look, it is a moot point. Next time Mandrake will release the tool under an exclusive license for two weeks.
Yeah . . . you really are contributing to wider use of the GPL by "acting in it its spirit".
Slashdot Mirror
Welcome to the club. Glad to have you aboard.
Where shall we meet to plan the complete and utter extermination of SCO?
Sincerely,
Tux
Is the Internet for poor people or rich people? What about parks and libraries?
Maybe an Open Source OS shouldn't be compared to ramen and Taco Bell . . .
and it usually does a better job finding the user's hardware.
Kind of makes you want to become a member.
MS has paid millions of dollars to a company that has NOTHING to offer them except FUD against Linux. And now that company is paying people not to use Linux.
.
There is a post at 5 interesting with a link to how much MS has been backing SCO . .
"Good thing they have several years"
Would allow us to decide A) whenever we pleased, probably. However, I suppose we do just have a couple years for B).
"Folks, if you're going to be sneaky, at least do enough research to make sure you're really being sneaky."
actually comment on something they are experts on.
I really believe there is too little discussion about issues like this. What you are hitting on is the matter of accountability. It is an extremely important tool for our society. Unfortunately, it usually takes a serious disaster (like the Great Depression) before people realize that accountability is essential to our civilization and something gets implemented. And the situation is even worse with relatively new technology.
/.er's are not immune. Why do we invest so much time into this site without demanding a certain degree of accountability? Is it not possible for our experience with this site to be pretty normal, yet what actually is going on in the background is quite contrary to our very reason for coming here? Without accountability, how will we ever know?
People tend to see technology as a separate "thing" that does not require the kind of scrutiny that other issues get. People only get excited when the technology stops working.
For instance, the majority of users have no problem with using a closed source OS like Windows. There are some really important issues about accountability that get neglected but as long as it works, people don't care. The only time people start to care is when insecure code allows their files to be erased and reality bursts their bubble. But what is the complaint? "MS, you need to get it together!" Unfortunately, the majority of people do not associate "accountability" as the main factor behind insecure code. They blame MS for being lazy (which is absurd, for so many reasons).
It seems that accountability is always an after-thought. If the system appears to be working, noone complains. However, without accountability, it is very easy for the system to be completely upside-down, yet appear to be working fine on the surface (most accounting scams appear flawlessly normal on the service, even when BILLIONS of dollars are being stolen or misrepresented).
This is not purely academic, and us
Nothing bizarre about it. Pretty straight forward and simple: the white house site is editting past webpages without posting updated dates. A robot.txt file was created to prevent mass archiving of these documents, so the editting wouldn't be as obvious.
.
However, I can't imagine an AC, who can't even figure out how to login, to be able to comprehend that . .
From the site:
/.'ers are too dense to figure that out . . . (or, at least the editors think so).
"Yes, he DID say "major combat operations" in his speech. The problem, though, is that on the official websites, the headlines regarding the speech all spoke of "Combat operations" as having ended - NOT "major combat operation." That was how the government was presenting the transcripts of the speech and other articles referring to it - at least up until someone questioned Bush about his having said that "combat operations" had ended, and then, suddenly, someone decided they needed to go back through and add the word "Major" to all of the articles. In at least some cases, the articles were copies of press releases that had been sent out after the speech - and when they were sent out, they went out with the "combat operations" headline. Now, however, they want to make it LOOK like they sent out the press releases with a headline reading "major combat operation," which isn't the case at all."
I guess speeches have to be cautious, but webpages can say exactly what you want to say 'cause later you can easily change things and make everyone THINK that is what was posted that way all along.
Anyway, I conclude that is the REAL reason for the robot.txt file, but
http://www.differentstrings.info/archives/002813.h tml
.
.
But I might as well be, 'cause it doesn't seem like anyone here at slashdot cares . .
Perfect example of 1984 . .
"Oddly enough he is probably 100 times the programmer you are. Maybe you heard about how he wrote a basic interpreter, argues algorithms with the SQL server team, and has debugged other non-ms applications at trade shows?"
You're point being? Is he a better programmer than, say, Linus Torvalds?
If Gates were giving talks on destroying the competition and off-book financing (stock options), I might listen (if such things fascinated me). But on coding? PLEASE. I don't care what he's coded, it compares nothing to the major OSS hackers.
Besides, in Gates' world, every programmers' name is Microsoft, and it is impossible to find the truly skilled because everything is binary.
Now excuse me, I think have already wasted enough time on an AC.
I submitted a story on how Howard Dean's blog showed that a webpage from May on the white house website had been changed to say "major combat" was over in Iraq, instead of "combat" was over (perhaps to hide Bush's blatant underestimate of the situation at the time). The date was kept the same. This seem significant to the discussion, but instead /. posted the above justification instead.
With the death count now HIGHER than it was during the "combat" period (or, since history has changed, do I have to say "major combat"?), I wonder how the slashdot editors feel about themselves, helping the administration modify history?
"You don't need perfect code to avoid security problems."
Here is a guy who knows nothing about perfect code, nor security.
Reminds me of the child who keeps on flunking school responding to the first sign of criticism, "I don't have to be PERFECT, do I?"
They have to bring down a 97% priracy rate and windows is more than 1/4 of the per capita annual income. Obviously, these vendors haven't been loading "legit" copies of windows and the easiest and fastest way to get them to stop is to require them to preinstall Open Source software.
I believe in freedom as much as the next guy, but if it was my responsibility to bring down piracy so that my country could join the WTO, I can't say I wouldn't be as drastic. Choice is great, but without access to the international financial community, development of infrastructure can take a 100 times more time.
Maybe this is necessary if the Vietnamese want to see things change for the better within their lifetimes.
I am sure MS goes around firing people for posting holiday and birthday pictures taken at work, as well (all of which are much less likely to occur at the loading dock and more likely to capture code).
Learn something about business . . . the MS lawyers probably said that this employee was too costly to the company's goodwill and wanted to make an example of them.
No doubt MS reserves the right to fire people for taking pictures on the campus and posting them online, but they excersize this right carefully.
Everyone knows that they are just covering up the fact that they couldn't afford to buy a REAL OS, you know, with the lack of funding the U.S. army gets and all.
Nobody uses Linux for an other reason than its cost, which is actually more than Windows when you take in account its TCO cause windows has all those neat add ons that make life more productive, like clippy.
Maybe SUSE thinks they are worth more than 120 million.
Market price is not an absolute constant, you know.
There were updates for like 9 different kernels, so don't get your panties bunched up, as far as I know, you only NEED 1.
.
I updated and it was like 40 rpms and took less than 5 minutes to download and install on my cable modem.
As for the cdroms . . . I think it is pretty stupid/scary that hardware is not being built with simple safe guards like, "spin too fast/ get too hot, turn off and cool down." If my freaken toaster can do that (cost me like $10, too), I expect my cdrom to do that too.
I can't wait until there is a virus that goes after poorly designed hardware and makes somebody's house burn down. .
"sure, we embrace IBM now, but for how long? you do realize that the way we feel about MS is similar to the way our fathers felt about IBM in the 70's."
;)
And if MS ever were to change the way IBM has, we would embrace them, as well. These are corporations, not people. Though slow and clumsy, theoretically only the name stays the same over time.
We are fighting a war of ideals, not companies or people.
Btw, regardless of how many people switch to Linux, the knowledge that you have gained over the years will always give you an advantage and allow you to connect on a different level with other advanced users. The community wont change overall . . . we will just gain more followers
"nobody is going to waste time writing Linux drivers for these M$ abandoned tablets"
;)
You would be suprised . . . plus, I don't think Lycoris would mind picking up this business.
I see those being abandoned by MS being the types that will just end up selling them on E-bay. Then guys like you and I will enjoy cheap Linux tablets
Cheers!
Why do you think businesses exist? If you walk into a marketing meeting of any business of a relatively large size, what is the key word you hear: Market Share. And what is market share? A partial monopoly which gives the company partial control over the market price of something.
.
What if there was an industry that prevented anyone from gaining a lot of market share. What would it look like? Such industries DO exist:
Doctore
Lawyers
Accountants
Plumbers
etc . .
There are exceptions to each of these examples (HR Block, Large auditing firms, Large law firms), but the great MAJORITY of these professionals make their living as PRIVATE entities, which means you'll never know how profitable they are.
These professionals can't gain market share because, though it takes time and money, the barriers of market are far, far less than, say, competing with MS on THEIR platform. Hence, when standards are OPEN, competition increases and the needs for financial leverage decrease as a result of smaller barriers to market.
So, your observation of just a view PUBLICLY OWNED (or business large enough for you to note their existence) entities making profits from OSS are correct. However, your inability to observe the earnings of PRIVATELY OWNED entities (or individuals who can live comfortable with just a dozen clients) using and creating OSS is not reason enough to come to the conclusion that OSS is flawed in the area of profitability. Our current system is simply limitted to requiring only public entities to publicly release their earnings and the majority of those benefitting by writing OSS are too small for you to even take notice.
to do absolutely nothing?
., at the cost of having only that ONE freaking part taken out by the hackers).
The companies that are REALLY clueless don't even know what SCO is or if they are running Linux. They are completely reactionary and will simply wait until they are sued to worry about SCO.
The companies that are smart will know that SCO is going up again the likes of IBM with completely baseless claims (why do they not show at least ONE infringing part of the code!? That would CERTAINLY help their case and help convince people they are not completely full of . .
I don't think SCO has much of a niche market, since I pretty much covered everyone (except MS and SUN, which are just mean and whacked, respectively).
before bashing it?
First of all, it is for EU agencies. Using this material to back up your decisions might be the difference between a promotion and getting fired if you work for such an organization. This is important for the audience it was written for.
Also, if you are into migrations to OSS, you might find some useful information, regardless of its target audience.
Anyway, the FASB is as bureaucratic as the EU and their publications are much more boring, but as a CPA I hang on every word they publish and so should anyone working in the accounting field, throughout the world. This is not about inspiring people, it is about setting standards, which is not as entertaining as the former but is just as important.
Personally, I think it is great for ANY institution to write on this subject, especially when it has a degree of objectivity on the subject. Many of the "case studies" that this was based on have never been published, so this adds additional observational information on the subject, at the very least.
"The question posed, then, is what do we do with all the people who will soon be unemployed by robots?"
There are PLENTY of places for these people to work, all such positions, of course, are quite heavy in human interaction (which most humans are better at than robots).
Have a class of 20 students with one teacher? Why not give that teacher 5 assistants so that the class can be broken up into groups of 4 students each?
We have plenty of old people, right? Give each senial citizen a care giver to ensure their last years are not lonely and cold.
But, wait!, you ask, how the heck can we afford that!? Well, there are two factors I see supporting this revolution in social services. One, the displaced workers are usually not as well educated, and they are going to be pretty desparate after a couple years competing with Indian PHD's working for 5k/year. So these displaced workers are going to be CHEAP.
Second, who is against corporations making BIG BUCKS when you can get your cut? Though government can be a bit slow and dumb, it won't be long before it realizes that robots pay less income taxes than employees. Therefore, expect the government to implement larger income taxes on corporations, in general.
So, though workers will be displaced by this revolution of industries, a national program that helps these workers make the transition while increasing the reach and caliber of current social services should make this change bearable and maybe, even enjoyable. However, there is always the risk that special interests will buy the policy makers out so that policies will be created that protect the additional profit businesses make from additional taxes. So I implore you to BUY YOUR OWN POLITICIAN:
www.blogforamerica.com
Guy releases under the GPL - true spirit of the GPL .
University site mirror website - true spirit of the GPL
Volunteer installs software at underpriveledged school - true spirit of the GPL
Punk creates bittorrent 2 days after "members only release" 'cause its gpl and couldn't wait any longer - you ain't going to win any noble prizes . . .
Look, it is a moot point. Next time Mandrake will release the tool under an exclusive license for two weeks.
Yeah . . . you really are contributing to wider use of the GPL by "acting in it its spirit".
Short-sighted prick.